Guess Where? Top Secret’s V12 Supra

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When I heard that Trap Team had acquired the Top Secret Supra that went up for auction late last year at the Tokyo Auto Salon, and that I’d have a chance to see the car in a few days, I didn’t believe it. Seriously, I flat-out did not believe what I was reading.

I’d heard that my source had a knack for talking things up, so to speak, but then another guy I was introduced to also mentioned the car as well as the shop that owned it. It was this second source who delivered for me, getting me in touch with Trap Team and setting up a little meet and greet.

There were a number of other cars worth a good look (read: Skylines) in their private warehouse a half an hour away, but in their friend’s air-conditioned garage was the car I was personally most interested in. I will get into the others later, but this JZA80 deserves special attention first.

This thing is the stuff of legend, you know? While I wasn’t all that savvy when it came to Kazuhiko Nagata’s Top Secret project cars until I read Dino’s piece in 2009 on the twin-turbo V12, videos of this particular build misbehaving have been floating around the internet since long before then.

If you aren’t familiar, take six minutes to enjoy ‘Smokey’ Nagata enjoying his own creation. Achieving 400km/h on the Nardò Ring was the original goal for the car, and while it fell short of that target running 358.22km/h in Italy, it still made for one hell of a Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line racer.

And then, just last year, the GT-300 Top Secret Supra popped up on here via an IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER submission. While Daniel’s photos featured the blazingly quick and aesthetically very different four-banger version of this car, the one in front of me this evening had three times the cylinders.

So, naturally, the first thing I had to do when I actually found myself with the car was to get that long bonnet open.

Expletive! While not nearly as tidy as I expected from other photos I’d seen, the snaking odds and ends under the hood make sense given all the cylinders that the 5.0-liter 1GZ-FE has. Still, it’s definitely made to look as nice as it possibly could with the twin HKS GT2835 turbos — assuming Nagata’s choice of power adder remains on the car — making it good for over 900hp to the wheels.

Still, I can’t help but think of the incredibly stunning engine bay of the Toyota Mark II that Richard featured almost a year ago. With the completely custom and strikingly beautiful ITB setup attached to the V12 in the older X30, I have to think that this motor is best off naturally aspirated. But I’m getting sidetracked from one type of car heaven to another, and obviously Nagata’s preference was ridiculous horsepower for ridiculous speeds in his ridiculous ’94 Supra.

Out in the back you’ll find the radiator which there’s obviously no space for up front, and it’s very cool to see how the wide-body was configured specifically to run a heat exchanger in the rear. It’s painfully clear that Nagata knew exactly what he was doing in setting up this car, although this should come as no surprise given his background as an engineer at Trust. More surprising is that he was allowed to continue his extravagant personal projects and side contracts — after his higher-ups became aware of both — while continuing to work for the company.

Eventually his hobby turned into Top Secret where Nagata had a knack for turning Toyota Supras — along with several other makes and models — into something else entirely.

While it’s been some years since the original build, I love how many of the original details remain on this car. It’s so fantastically cool.

Having fanboy’d over the engine bay and interior for long enough, I finally asked Josh to close the car up so I could take all in just a bit longer.

The odd lights, the misshapen MkIV body lines, the angular edges to the once-swooping car…

I was thinking to myself that I could easily spend all night looking at every last detail when I heard the engine in my ride home turn over and start up. Still, I lingered until the headlights shining into the garage seemed like the last polite hint I’d get.

As I wandered out into the warm humid night, it suddenly hit me how very special it was to get a peek up close at one of Nagata’s crazy builds. Having seen hundreds of photos of the signature gold cars over the years, I finally was able to capture some of my own.

It was auctioned at Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this year. I tried to post the link for you, but the server thing wasn’t having it. Just Google “Tokyo Auto Salon Auction”. It’s one of the first results as a PDF in English. Lots of rare cars were auctioned and the event was considered a success. It’ll likely be repeated next year.

Smokey stated that if the bidding reached ¥10,000,000 he’d consider building another monster, but this car ultimately received ¥9,000,000 ($90,486.00). Who knows, maybe it was close enough for him...fingers crossed, eh.

Thank you for bringing us these shots and just saying this as a loyal reader....pretty rough article. Starts with bagging the contact, lots of superlative remarks yet the only comment about the engine was that it's rougher than you thought and it looks worse than the NA one from NZ...did you think the car was going to get prettier at over 350km/h? Or did you think somebody that isn't Nagata should have the audacity to restore it? I don't know, for a car that like you say is a god, the article is all over the show. I feel like this read life Wangan Midnight car deserves better. Next, let's send Cardi B to talk about the Mona Lisa.

Who cares about technical info, especially on this car. Would knowing what kind of head gaskets are used make you appreciate the car more? I doubt it.

I actually really like the article, because it’s honest. You have someone getting to finally snap picks of a “hero car”, and while the author drooled over the car enough, they also had the presence of mind to not get too lost in the car, and realize it has flaws too.

Personally, I prefer that the details of this car remain a mystery...that’s the beauty of Top Secret. If you really want to know for yourself, make a trip to Florida and go look at the car in person.

You have no problem pointing out the flaws of this article, but you seem to have a major issue with the author pointing out what he considers to be flaws with the car. Okay then.....

WHOAAAA! So fucking salty!? Am I missing something here? Was Trevor intimate with someone you hold dearly?But seriously, would you prefer no pictures and no story? I wonder if the Speedhunters will offer you a refund on the cost of admission here? SPEEDHUNTERS. GIVE THIS GUY A REFUND!

@Uncle Jeff your comment is a pathetic conglomerate of insults with zero brains put into it. Please write your comment again replacing the pointless (and quite lame) personal attacks with coherent reasons why you think I am wrong. You do realise it's a comment section, right? You do realise I backed up every single remarks with something I took from the author's work, right? So what part of your upbringing does not let you comprehend that sometimes, funded negative feedback can also be appropriate? If you react like this in life, every time you see constructive criticism you will never ever go forward, that is a fact. This is a JOKE of an article with ZERO technical insight or new information about a car which we still know virtually nothing about, and therefore a WASTED OPPORTUNITY. Try prove me wrong instead of acting like a peasant, otherwise don't comment at all. We're here to comment and debate, your insults are just a sign of not understanding basic concepts.

real* life, excuse my eager typing. Also, you can't expect our youngest readers to know this car as well as us pre-youtube people....zero technical breakdown now that you can examine carefully and the new owner is right there?! Top Secret cars were always covered by, well, secrecy. This was our golden chance to find out about the details of this marvel and you blew it...

It's still kept its secrecy for so long, I think with todays social media everything is always given away. I'd keep it secret and let people work it out themselves at looking at it face to face. Why ruin it now?

Perhaps....although it does seem to me like an easy out, or simply the biggest cliche' from the moment one decides to WRITE an article about it. I feel that if that was the intention, it should have been made more obvious, as it would have been the core theme of the article. Still doesn't account for the passive aggressiveness towards the first contact, or justify calling a car he is idolising mechanically ugly. Contradicting and all over the show, I stand by my point.

I normally wouldn't bother... but I'll just say that first contact almost ensured I never see the car or meet the shop whereas this second guy directly introduced me to the owners. There was a huge difference in their approach/outcome and that really mattered to me. Obviously.

As a huge, huge Supra fan I always hated that one. I do love the Japanese tuning culture but this one makes my cry a little. The front is just plain ugly with those headlights and bonnet lines. All the boxy lines at the back also don't match the original curved body lines of the Supra. I get that the quality is probably second to none, it goes like hell and that it was created by a legend, but it's still riced out a bit. I always believe that everybody should be able to do whatever with their own car but the Supra is holy for me

For those who didn't know where the engine came from...the Toyota 1GZ-FE V12 is from the Toyota Century GZG50 luxury sedan.

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